


Elia and the Starstruck Tower

by KawaiiSpider



Category: Original Work
Genre: Daemons, Eldritch, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Horror, M/M, Magic, Magic School, Multi, Necromancy, Science Fiction, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 21:03:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21204065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KawaiiSpider/pseuds/KawaiiSpider
Summary: This is a draft of my first longer work. I will be posting updates as I write them.Elia is a young noblewoman who is accepted into The University, a school for mages. Here she will learn magic, uncover conspiracies, and find love.Horror/Fantasy/Romance





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This is a draft that will be added to and edited as the story progresses. I'm not sure what the normal protocol for posting updates and stuff is, so let me know. Feedback and critique is also appreciated.
> 
> Content Warning  
This book contains excessive violence, including violence towards children. It also contains scenes of sexual assault, excessive gore, cosmic horror, slavery, oppression, fantasy bigotry and probably a bunch of other terrible stuff. 
> 
> Concerning Sha  
Almost every sentient being in the world has a Sha, a glyph on their forehead that marks their soul as being attuned to a certain elemental force. For a being with a Sha has a Soul, and those unfortunate people without them are regarded as second class citizens at best, subhuman at worst. Some animals, including cats and some breeds of dog have Sha. Many people regard the Sha to have great bearing on the personality of a person. Some scholars theorise that people act according to the cultural expectation of their Sha, rather than the Sha enforcing any sort of personality upon a person.  
Having a Sha is an essential part of casting almost all magic and a mage’s Sha will grow and shift over time, depending on the magic they use.

This is the story of a girl named Elia. Elia’s parents were minor nobles in the great port city of Arastor. They spent the majority of their time attending various meetings with other minor nobles, where they schemed and plotted amongst themselves, vying for the little power the Great Houses gave them. As a child, Elia was primarily cared for by a nanny and two of the family slaves. Elia’s family had always had slaves, and while most worked building boats or crewing the family’s fleet of trading ships, a few were tasked with household work, which included caring for Elia and her four younger sisters.

One of these household slaves had a daughter named Katarina, who was a year younger than Elia. The slave’s daughter, like the household slave, was Sha-less, born without a sha on her forehead. Children of the slaves without a sha were considered property of the owner of their mother and were very much considered by the society of Arastor to be not quite human at best, and barely more than animals at worst. Unlike Katarina, Elia had a bright lightning-Sha on her dark forehead, the intricate patterns which it was formed of unique to her. Despite the large social divide between noble girl and sha-less slave, and Elia’s parents continued attempts to dissuade it, the pair became fast friends, with Katarina spending her sparse free time playing with Elia.

Elia was a bright child, exploring whatever was around her and when she turned five, her mother decided her daughter needed to learn in a more focused manner. She hired a young woman named Tharis Ren to become Elia’s tutor. Tharis Ren was the daughter of another noble woman and had recently completed her studies at The Royal Academy of Arts and Culture, the second most renowned place of learning within the city. She moved to rooms within the house and began to tutor Elia. She taught Elia how to read and write before moving swiftly into history, mathematics, arcanology, daemonology and the natural sciences. Elia was not a particularly rapid learner, though she was certainly not stupid either. She worked diligently at her studies, and soon began to need more advanced tutors in more advanced subjects. Elia was also a voracious reader, often sneaking into her mother’s library to find books she had not yet read. She loved her time spent with Tharis, debating assorted topics, and discussing the things she learnt.

Elia’s love of reading spread to Katarina too, who convinced Elia to teach her as well. While Elia most enjoyed reading ancient histories, Katarina enjoyed fiction and dense tomes on mathematics, which Elia found a little dull. Their favourite books were the ones filled with magical reproductions of art from around the world, and the art philosopher’s interpretations of the deep meaning of art, which the girls would read to each other in the most pompous voices imaginable before collapsing in laughter. Elia’s other love were the books filled with maps, many of which had been drawn in ages past by explorer elves who mapped the work from the backs of dragons. Elia soon decided that her future was to be a dragon riding cartographer and would often tell people that her greatest ambition was to one day ride a dragon to the moon and make a map of the other side.

Tharis assessed her student’s knowledge frequently, reporting to Elia’s parents her progress in all the fields she was studying. Her strongest areas were anything that required hard work and memorisation, and while she possessed the skills to achieve in every area, her disinterest in certain topics were often the only thing holding her back. Overall, Elia was a thorough and gifted student, and her parents were very pleased.

Part of her training was an introduction to magic. Everyone (besides the Sha-less) had a bit of magic in them, which most people could use to some degree. Elia’s mother had a fire-Sha, and she would often light candles or lanterns with a touch or reheat her tea by frowning at it. Elia had a lightning-Sha, the same as her father, and soon could generate small sparks at will and make small objects stick to her. She also enjoyed trying to make all her hair stand on end, though her mother would often reprimand her when she caught Elia doing this. Elia’s hair was far too thick and frizzy for this trick to work properly so instead she would charge up Katarina, whose thinner and straighter hair was far more suited for such activities.

When Elia turned seven, Tharis and the other tutors were joined by a man named Reynald, who attempted to teach the young girl politics and courtly intrigue. Elia heavily resisted this training, though not only due to her disinterest in the subject matter. Reynald always stank strongly of alcohol and he would often touch her arms or back in a manner that was far from decent. These touches would occur whenever she dropped her guard, and on more than one occasion he received a slap from the small girl. She eventually complained to her parents and Reynald was swiftly reprimanded and ceased his vile habits, but the damage was done. Elia refused to learn the inner workings of the political landscape and remained thoroughly tomboyish in her behaviour. After a time, Reynald was joined by a flamboyant elf named Aylen, the first elf Elia had ever spoken to. They taught her the rudiments of high and low elven, as well as various dances from across the world. Elia was an above average dancer, able to move with grace and precision, though she struggled to memorise specific patterns, often just improvising her dances, to the endless frustration of her mother and father. She also was instructed in the basics of martial combat, learning how to hold and use various weapons, and the protocol around duels and other noble actions. She was a skilled duellist, though she very rarely practiced, preferring to focus on more cerebral studies.

When she was eight years old, Elia’s father challenged Lady Emerita, the head of an enemy house, to a Spear Dance. The duel took place in an arena next to the sea, attended by a crowd of nobles, who placed bets on the outcome. Her father and Lady Emerita met on the centre, wearing loose armour and wielding long spears. The fight was short and nasty. Elia’s father was hopelessly outclassed and was subsequently humiliated and then defeated, taking a spear to the throat in front of his wife and five daughters, dying shortly thereafter as his lungs filled with blood instead of air, despite the attentions of a nearby healer. Elia, who had never been particularly close to her father, considered herself to be quite upset at this loss, and spent a full year locked in her room, reading, not allowing anyone besides Tharis inside, who dutifully brought her new books to devour. Not even Katarina was allowed in, though she routinely snuck into the room while Elia was asleep and left small treats that she knew Elia would enjoy.

During this year, Elia’s mother, using a combination of blackmail, murder, and sex, managed to become the head of her House. Through this process she acquired a modicum of power, a small fortune, and many enemies. Almost exactly a year after her husband’s death, Elia’s mother moved the whole family, along with their servants and slaves, to the Enden Manor, a small fortress-like building at the north eastern edge of the city, near the docks. House Enden was a Trade House, specialising in boat building and sea trade, neither of which Elia cared for one bit, but being near the sea and in a wealthier area of Arastor City finally encouraged Elia to leave her room once more. She began exploring the surroundings of her new home, always accompanied by her tutor Tharis, a bodyguard, and at least two of the Enden family slaves.

Katarina often accompanied her on these trips, carrying water and money for Elia, as well as helping to transport anything that the young woman purchased on the way. Elia had a generous allowance, made even more generous after her mother’s increase in fortune, and she spent it freely, buying gifts for her family and tutors, and even presents for the slaves who helped her, though nothing too generous, as it would not do to make them forget their place.

As Elia grew older, these trips became increasingly frequent, and she began to go further afield, often catching the clockwork trains to other sections of the city. At the insistence of her mother, she visited other noble girls of a similar age to her, though she never formed particularly close friendships with any of them, besides a girl a few years younger than her, named Mera. Mera loved Elia, who brought her gifts and played many games with her. She was an only child, and starved for attention, and she swiftly imprinted on Elia, sending her letters in childish writing through the royal post. Elia, in turn, doted on the girl, replying to all her letters as soon as she received them, and taking the 3-hour return journey across Arastor at least once a week.

Katarina did not like Mera one bit.

When Elia was eleven, her mother remarried. Her new wife was a merchant countess from Arastor’s primary trading partner across the sea. The new woman was considerably paler than most Arastori, with bright green eyes, straight dark hair, and a water Sha. She tried to gain the love of her new children, and while Elia’s sisters were quick to call her mother, Elia never did. In an effort to escape the house, and to escape her new stepmother, Elia began to spend her time at bookshops and libraries, reading to her hearts content.


	2. A Mage’s Duel

Elia sat in one of these bookshops, contentedly curled up in a comfortable chair, with Katarina sitting at the foot of the chair, resting her hair against Elia’s leg. Elia was reading a rather thick book, very misleadingly titled, ‘A Brief History of the Great Empire Bank’ while Katarina read a smaller, though no less dense title named ‘Essays on Kendrian Philosophy’. Katarina was about to ask Elia her opinion on a particular position when the sound of an explosion echoed throughout the city and into the quaint bookshop where they sat.

Elia jumped to her feet, surprise and fear sending adrenaline surging through her body. Katarina leapt up as well, heading towards the door to look outside as Elia’s bodyguard drew her sword, motioning for Elia to stay still. Elia cocked her head to the side, trying to hear what was happening outside. Without warning there was a bright flash of blue light and the wall and nearly half the bookshop disintegrated, sending books and splinters of wood flying through the air. Elia was thrown to the ground by the blast, and lay on her back, bleeding from hundreds of splinters that had embedded themselves in her skin. Through a hole in the roof she watched, stunned, as two figures flew high above her, torrents of magic lashing around them. Walls of fire met bursts of lightning as the two mages duelled, deflecting and redirecting magical energy around each other. One of the mages wore bright red robes that flowed around in the intense wind while the other was only barely visible inside a sphere of magical energy that seemed to be absorbing some of their opponent’s attacks. The mage in the sphere could apparently see perfectly well, and a wave of lava, drawn through a strange portal and thrown towards was thrown through the air at the other mage. The red robed mage made a dramatic gesture and the incoming torrent of lava was blocked by a wall of stone conjured in mid-air, and both lava and stone fell in a rain of death upon the city below. Elia could hear distant screaming but was utterly entranced by the sight of the duel, in awe of the power that flowed around and through them.

Suddenly there was a figure at her side, a familiar face in the dust filled air. Elia felt a surge of relief as Katarina pulled her to her feet, blood running down the slave girl’s face from a nasty gash above her temple.  
“Elia! Are you all right?”  
Elia went to answer, but instead gave out a cry of alarm as she spotted a large stone falling rapidly towards them. She turned away, trying to pull Katarina out of the path of the descending death, but it was too late, the stone was about to hit.

But it missed the two girls, landing with a crunch on the prone guard and another bookstore patron. The guard was pulverised in an instant, nothing remaining but an arm, still clutching a sword. The patron was not as unlucky (or lucky) and was instead only partially crushed, their legs, stomach, and lowest two ribs flattened by the giant stone. The two girls were showered in blood, and a horrified scream escaped Elia’s lips. As she tried to wipe the blood from her face, she pulled Katarina upright again and towards the door. They were almost outside when, with another ear shattering burst, the air around them exploded. Elia felt her friend’s hand ripped out of her own and both girls were once again thrown through the air. Elia hit the ground with a crash and the remnants of the bookstore fell on top of her.

Captain Aelun was one of the first city watch to the aftermath. Both mages were long gone, witnesses had reported that one of them had been vaporised along with a row of houses before the other had teleported away. Some University Mages were moving in pairs, drawing sigils in the air as they dealt with the arcane corruption that was left over from such a powerful magical battle. Soldiers were busy digging bodies out of the rubble and lining them up along the side of the road. Every now and then a cry went up as they found a survivor, and the healers rushed to heal wounds and save who they could. Some of the damaged buildings had been reinforced with magic, and a temporary hospital had been set up to treat the wounded. It was in this makeshift hospital that Aelun stood when Elia was brought in, carried by a young soldier with a cut on his face. The young girl immediately caught the captain’s eye, elegantly dressed and still beautiful under the layers of dust and blood, clearly nobility of some sort. Aelun did not look forward to the girl’s parents having her executed if she did not prioritize their daughter’s wellbeing so she looked around for a healer and shouted.  
“Healer Chanda! Priority case here!”  
The healer moved next to the bed, checking the girl for broken bones or other injuries. After a moment he placed his hand on her chest and released a soft glow of healing magic over her, his life-Sha glowing gently. In a few moments, her cuts and bruises healed, and her eyes snapped open.  
With a gasp she uttered one word; “Katarina?”

Elia looked around the crowded room for any sign of her friend. People rushed everyway, and the floor was covered in blood. In one corner there was a single leg, neatly severed by some wayward spell. Elia felt slightly ill and tried to sit up, looking wildly around for Katarina, but the healer gently pushed her back down.  
“Take a deep breath. Everything is going to be all right. You were hurt a little bit, but I have healed you. You should still rest for a few minutes and let the last of the spell fade before you get up.”  
“No!” Elia felt her face go red as anger swelled up inside her. “My friend, she was just with me! Where is she?”  
The healer shook his head. “I am not sure, sorry.” He turned to Captain Aelun, a youngish woman with an earth-Sha and the bright armour of the military police. “I have others to heal, can you…?”  
“Sure.”  
The captain turned to Elia as the healer moved away. “Where was your friend?”  
“Right with me when the bookstore fell. Is she okay?” There was a note of panic in Elia’s voice, though she kept her composure with great effort.  
“I will go and check.”

As soon as the guard left, Elia sat bolt upright, head turning every way as she looked around desperately for any sight of Katarina in the mass of people and occasional dead body. It only took her a moment to find what she was looking for, Katarina lay in a corner of the building, no healers around her, apparently unconscious. Elia got out of her bed, her head aching terribly, and rushed over to her friend.

She gasped as she saw got closer, the pale slave girl’s arm was mangled badly, and one of her legs was bent at a decidedly unnatural angle. Elia grasped weakly at her friends uninjured hand.  
“Oh Katarina…”  
Katarina stirred at the sound of Elia’s voice.  
“Elia…”  
Katarina suddenly screamed as a wave of pain burst from her arm and leg, overwhelming the minor pain from the hundreds of cuts and bruises across her whole body.  
Elia turned sharply to some nearby healers, who were healing a merchants broken arm.  
“Why isn’t she being healed?” Her tone was demanding, but a quaver in her voice betrayed her worry.  
The closest healer turn and looked at Katarina for a moment before turning back to the merchant.  
“My lady,” she said over her shoulder, “She is Sha-less, and I need to preserve my magic for people who need it.”  
Elia drew herself up to her full height and assumed an expression she had seen her mother take when dealing with her own unruly behaviour with a snarl in her voice she spoke.  
“I am Lady Elia of House Enden. This girl is my property, and if you let her die, I will personally ensure that you are thrown from the wall in front of your family and friends.”  
Katarina screamed in pain once more and Elia turned back to her for a moment, wiping some blood from her face. “Everything will be okay…”  
She glared at the healer.  
“Healer! Now!”

Something in the noble girl’s voice made the healer decidedly nervous, so she swallowed and nodded.  
“Of course, my lady.”  
She gave the merchant a last burst of power and moved to the side of the Sha-less slave. “I will have to amputate the arm; it is beyond my power to heal that much damage. I can heal the leg though, once it is reset.”  
A few other healers came at her request, faces surprised when they saw they were helping a lowly slave, though the look on Elia’s face deterred them from commenting. Katarina screamed once again as they set her leg with a vicious twist, but as the healer’s magic repaired the bone and torn muscles, she relaxed a little. Elia held onto Katarina’s unhurt hand tightly, face furrowed with worry as she watched the magic at work. As soon as the magic started to fade, one of the healers gave Katarina a drink of a dark green potion that numbed her entire body and the healers started the amputation. Katarina watched for a moment as the scalpel dug into the fleshy remnants of her right arm but passed out almost immediately.

Elia watched the whole operation with great interest, though she winced as the bone-saw sliced through Katarina’s shattered bone. The healers were clearly practiced at this sort of procedure. Now that Katarina was no longer in immediate danger, she could relax a little and think about her actions. Her mother would not be happy, that was sure. Elia was not sure why she was suddenly so protective of Katarina. Slaves were replaceable, she knew that, and while she was fond of Katarina, she had other, non-slave friends. As she imagined a world without Katarina, she was hit by a sudden pain in her chest, a strange deep ache near her heart, so she decided to stop thinking about it.

Once the amputation was complete, the wound was sealed with a spell and, after a lot of yelling from Elia, Katarina was given a blood replenishing potion and the pair were released, just as Elia’s mother arrived.  
“Elia! Thank the gods that you are all right. What happened to the slave girl?”  
“Her arm was crushed. I told the healers to heal her; you can take the money out of my allowance.”  
Elia’s mother looked shocked. “Elia! You… There is no need for the girl to be healed. Now we have a one-armed slave, what is the point of that? I guess I can sell her, though even the pleasure houses will not pay full price if she is missing an arm.”  
Elia’s face went red again.  
“NO! Katarina is my friend! You ca- “  
“What are you saying, girl? She is Sha-less, a slave! We will find you a new servant, one with two arms and no foolish notions of friendship. Maybe even a girl from a lower house down on their luck.”

Elia yelled something incoherent and her mother looked at her, shock in her eyes. “Elia?”  
“I’ll buy her. I’ll pay whatever you would have got from selling her.”  
“Elia!”  
“No mum, I’m doing this.”  
Elia’s mother looked at her daughter, looked at her clenched fists and determined stance, and knew in that moment, that there was no way she would win this battle.  
“A year’s allowance. For a slave? Is this really what you want?”  
“Yes.”  
Elia’s mother paused for a moment; defeat written on her face.  
“Deal.” The crowd of onlookers murmured. “Let’s go home…”

Once they were home, and Katarina was taken by her own mother to her own bed, Elia shut herself in her room. It was only then that she allowed herself to collapse onto the floor, hands shaking and heart racing. She heard her mother come up the stairs and pause by the door, but no knock came, and after a moment or two the footsteps left again. Elia let out a slow breath before she jumped onto her bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Her dreams were filled with images of the fight. Magic flowed through her as the two mages duelled, Elia in the air with them. She watched as houses were destroyed and lives were ruined, entranced by the sheer power that the two mages radiated. An idea formed in her mind, washing away childish dreams to ride on dragons or to make maps. This is what she wanted to be. A mage.

When she woke the idea had fully solidified. She would join The University and become a mage, or she would die in the attempt. She thought about the best way to tell her mother and decided to wait; one argument was enough for a while. As she rolled over to go back to sleep, she found a note and a necklace on her pillow.

_My darling Elia,_

_Thank you for saving my daughter twice in one day. We are forever in your debt and will consider you family always. Let us know if you ever need anything, anything at all._

_Maria_

The necklace was simple, a leather thong with a metal bird pendant. Elia put it on, and the strange feeling in her heart returned again, though much warmer, and without the pain from before. Grinning happily, she snuggled under her blanket and went back to sleep as the sun drifted lazily across her bed.

After a few hours she felt a weight on the end of her bed and opened her eyes. Katarina, looking much better, though the lack of a right arm still was quite unsettling, sat there, looking at Elia with a blazing look in her eyes.  
“So you own me now.”  
Elia smiled. “I do.”  
“Though you sort of owned me before, anyway.” Katarina gave Elia a quick grin.  
Elia laughed. “But now it’s official.”  
Katarina’s face grew serious again. “Thank you, you saved my life twice.”  
“I did it for me more than anything.” Elia was surprised to hear herself say the words. “I couldn’t bear to lose you.”  
“You still did it.”  
Elia did not say anything more and Katarina reached out to touch her hand. “Do you like the necklace me and mum gave you? We aren’t really supposed to own things, but we have kept it hidden for a long time, apparently it was my grandmothers once.”  
Elia opened her shirt to reveal the necklace sitting on her chest. “It’s incredibly beautiful. Thank you.”  
The slave smiled, and went to stand up, but Elia held onto her hand. Katarina hesitated. “What is it? I sort of need to get back to work.”  
“You are mine now, and I have a task for you.”  
Something in Elia’s voice made Katarina’s heart suddenly race, and she suddenly was aware of Elia’s bare skin beneath the necklace. “Yes, master?”  
“Kiss me.”

Katarina happily did as she was told, and the two girls, slave and noble, soon were wrapped around each other in Elia’s bed, still mostly clothed, though hands slipped beneath cloth as they kissed passionately. This messy kiss was the first for both girls, and they each enjoyed it thoroughly. After half an hour, Katarina left the room, tidying her hair, and Elia lay back, a great happiness in her heart and a blush on her cheeks that almost matched Katarina’s.

That night, and every night after, Katarina slept in Elia’s bed, where both girls dreamed of that day’s events. The nightmares would haunt them for years, though they never spoke of the horrors of the day again and mentioned it only in passing.


	3. Starting School

When she was 13 years old, Elia convinced her mother to let her apply to The University. She had already discussed it at great length with Tharis Ren before she even told her mother she was interested in applying. and she had already begun deepening her magical knowledge long before that. Learning magic beyond the basics of Sha magic was forbidden outside the great academies, but Elia dove deep into the theoretical basis, learning of different energies, planes, daemons, and other important knowledge. Some of her other education suffered, and Tharis warned her that a mage required a wide breadth of wisdom, and so Elia reluctantly agreed to continue her other studies.

Her relationship with Katarina had continued, soon becoming common knowledge as the young slave spent almost every night in her master’s bed. Nobles often used slaves to fulfil their needs, and though Elia was thought to have started earlier than most, there was not much gossip about the pair’s night-time activity. More family gossip involved the apparent closeness the pair shared, often seen holding hands when they thought no-one was looking. Some, including her mother and step-mother disregarded it as childish fancy, though her sisters were not convinced.

“They are in love, just like in Scent of the Sea[1]!”  
“No way…”  
“I want to be in love!”

Elia ignored the rumours and comments, happy in her bubble of romantic bliss even after two years. Katarina continued to serve her, and Elia enjoyed taking the lead in their romantic entanglements as her position indicated. Elia loved Katarina, that was sure, but she knew her place, and made sure that Katarina did as well. She had other brief romances as well, including three months spent courting another noble girl whose family were attempting to join House Enden in a trade alliance. Elia had never felt happier as when she cuddled with Katarina and the noble girl in her comfortable bed, one arm around each of them. It was around this time that she decided to finally tell her mother about her intentions to join The University.

“Why?”  
Elia’s mother looked resigned. She had long ago given up trying to control her eldest daughter. Elia’s face shone with excitement as she spoke.  
“Why? Have you seen the mages‽ Have you seen the power they wield‽ Seen the awe on people’s faces when they fly over‽ I want to be like that.”  
“Elia… The path of the mage is dangerous. You will be the head of this house when I die or when I retire to the islands. House Enden needs you.”  
“I don’t want to be the head of this stupid house. I don’t care about trade, or boats. I want to learn magic. I want to explore the world.”  
Elia’s mother looked defeated. She put her face in her hands, groaning slightly.  
“Tharis tells me your arcane theory lessons are your best, I suppose it won’t hurt for you to sit the entrance exam…”  
“Thanks mum!”

And thus, Elia’s story truly began. Her and the noble girl drifted apart and eventually broke up, as Elia spent more time studying for the entrance exam that would take place in three months’ time. Tharis was joined by many more tutors, including several ex-students from The University, and they taught and tested Elia relentlessly, filling every gap in her knowledge. The University only took a small number of students each year, and once in The University, a person had an extraordinary life ahead of them, no matter how poorly they did. Unless they were expelled for breaking one of The Universities few rules, they would always have a position in some magic related field. Even those who failed their lessons were in high demand if they survived, of course.

The day of the exam, Elia was escorted to the train station by her mother in order take the clockwork train to The University.

Elia hugged her mother, who rubbed her hair with a free hand.

“Good luck!”  
“Thank you, I’ll try my best.”  
“I know you will…”

Elia had seen The University from a distance many times, for its twisting spires, tall towers, and high domes were visible from almost anywhere in the city, but she had never been inside its bright blue outer walls. The University had three main gates, each of which lead to a different section of the Arastor. The University grounds also spread across five of the islands in the bay, tall marble bridges that seemed to hang in the air connecting the islands to The University proper. On these islands were strange structures, odd buildings that flashed strange colours at night, and a mass of plants that grew all over the place.

Elia entered the university from one of the two clockwork train stations that connected to The University, choosing the one closest to the examination building as Tharis has instructed her. As she left the station, she looked around in amazement. The difference between the rest of the city and The University was remarkable, from crowded and bustling streets lined with garbage and refuse, to wide clean paths flanked with sections of grass and small trees with multicoloured leaves. There was plenty of room between the passing students and mages, which was a welcome relief from the crowds outside. Even the upper class areas that Elia was used to felt dirty and crowded by comparison and Elia felt a little underdressed for the first time in her life, very glad she had purchased a fine dress for Katarina, who was escorting her on this trip.

Flanking the entry way to The University were two armoured figures, with dark masks and black cloaks. They did not seem to be holding any weapons, but Elia knew that the Eternals did not need conventional weapons to be a deadly force. She thought back to her studies, to what Tharis had told her of The University’s elite guards. They were undead, or something similar, able to create blades of psionic force that cut through magic and mundane protection alike. They served The University with eternal loyalty, acting as guards, watchers, police, and peacekeepers. In times of great conflict they were sometimes deployed as front line shock troops, where they served with great distinction.

Suppressing an urge to act inconspicuous, Elia followed the directions her tutors had given her, and made her way to the examination hall, a white marble edifice with stained glass window that depicted various famous mages battling great evils and each other. The stained glass flowed and shifted, playing out the great achievements depicted in its rainbow radiance. Elia recognised some of the figures, including her personal historic hero, a witch who was also named Elia. The elder Elia had built the first portals to the other planets in the solar system and had been the first human to step foot on another world. She had lived to three hundred years old before dying when she drifted into an antimagic field and suffocated in space. The younger Elia had cried when she found out and made a mental note to have some sort of backup when she went to space.

There were a trio of student mages waiting to greet the new applicants, two women and a man, all in their late teens. At least twenty children surround them, ages ranging from about nine to fifteen. They were noble children, for the most part. While there were no formal restrictions on who could sit the examination, it was a general rule that only those with the money and contacts to find tutors and teachers could ever stand a chance at passing the rigorous entrance exam.

Once everyone had assembled, the older students led the examinees into a side hall, where a number of desks were arranged haphazardly. An older man with no hair and a short beard stood at the end of the room and spoke loudly as they entered.  
“Welcome to the Entrance Exam! Please take a seat at any desk that takes your fancy, do not turn over the papers and do not speak unless you have a valid question.”  
Once everyone was seated, with Elia taking a seat at the back, he spoke again, this speech clearly rehearsed.  
“When I ring the bell you may turn your page and begin answering the questions. If you have a question or need to use the bathroom, you may raise your hand, and someone will assist you. The exam will last for four hours. Cheating is strictly prohibited, any attempts to cheat will be harshly punished, and you will not be allowed to re-sit this exam for ten years. You may not have any written material while taking the exam. If you have brought anything into this room, please raise your hand and someone will be around to collect it.”  
A boy sitting near the front raised his hand and handed over several pages of written notes to a supervisor, to widespread giggling from the others.  
“Thank you. It is not required that you answer questions in order. My advice is to select the questions to which you know the answers to first.”  
Smiling at them, the man turned and rang the bell. “You may now begin. Good luck!”

The exam was a strange one, a mix of theory questions, which Elia was well prepared for from her studies, and philosophical questions that perplexed her to some degree.  
  
_If time was suddenly reversed, what would be the biggest impact on society?_  
  
If you had to choose between killing 10 people to save 100, or killing 20 people to save 130, which option would you pick and why? What is the maximum number of people would you kill to save 1000 people? Assume all people are randomly selected average citizens who you do not know. Explain your reasoning.  
  
You are offered a single wish, though the wish giver will attempt to grant it in the most dangerous way possible. What do you wish for and how do you word it?

At the end of the four hours the bell rang again, and everyone stopped writing at once. Elia had not answered every question, though from her glances to nearby applicants no one else had either. There were worried faces everywhere she looked.

“You may leave now, results will be sent to whatever address you listed on your application within a week.”  
The man held up a crystal that hung around his neck, which glowed for a moment before all the exam papers, tables, and chairs flew through the air, the tables and chairs folding themselves into a wall as the exam papers flew to the man, who grabbed the neat pile before he vanished with a faint popping sound. Elia did as she was told, meeting Katarina outside.  


“How did you go?”  
“Fine, I think. Strange questions, hard answers. Everyone else seemed to struggle as well.”  
“That should be fine then, I believe in you.” Katarina spoke with a smile and kissed her on the cheek.  
“Let’s go to a café for lunch.”

The pair ate lunch at a small café near The University before heading home. Elia talked her way through the exam, much to Katarina’s annoyance, and Elia, realising how many questions she had not answered to her own standards began to worry. Katarina had to lead the noble girl home, holding her hand tightly the whole way.

Four days of unbearable waiting later, Elia received a letter.

_Dear Elia,_

_It is with great excitement that I inform you that your application to The Imperial University of Magical Studies has been approved, with you placing 7th in your test group. _

_You are hereby invited to join classes on the 28th of Mariset**[2]** at 8 am. Those living near The University Grounds or with rapid enough transportation are free to live wherever, though rooms are available at The University for those who wish to live on campus._

_Upon the completion of your first class, which is an introduction to The University, there will be an opportunity to purchase the magical materials you will need for your first year of study, though any of the following items that you already own may be brought into The University if you wish._

_\- A wand, Staff, Orb, Crystal, or another Arcane Channel._

_\- A familiar._

_\- Robes or armour._

_\- A weapon._

_\- A cauldron._

_\- Alchemical Set. (All ingredients you will need are purchasable within University grounds.)_

_We recommend that at least 800 crowns are brought each year, to cover expenses, though there are funds available for less fortunate students. If you are in need of such a fund, or wish to apply for student housing, please send a letter to:_  
New Student Enquiries, The University, Arastor, The Empire, Prime Material Plane.  
With the details of your enquiry.

_We look forward to you joining us._

_Signed, Archmage Elwyn._

Elia’s shout of joy summoned her family from across the mansion, and soon she was surrounded by her sisters, who hugged her tightly, all at once, in congratulations. Her mother even hugged her, with tears in her eyes, and her stepmother gave her an encouraging smile. Two agonizing weeks later, she moved to new rooms at The University, taking Katarina with her. The University was not too far from Enden Manor, but Elia had insisted that she moved to the rooms at The University, and after a multi-day argument with her mother, it was agreed that Elia could go. Her new rooms were considerably smaller than her old ones, and she was forced to leave nearly all of her books behind. The new rooms were situated off a corridor that housed nine other students. Elia met a few of her new neighbours as they moved in. The first Elia noticed was a blue haired Kjena girl who looked about the same age as her. She was gorgeous and exotic, and Elia was momentarily stunned as she looked at her. After a moment she was knocked from her trance as a handsome older boy elbowed her out of his way as he carried a large box of books down the hall.  
“Watch it!”  
Elia glared at him.  
“You bumped into me!”  
The boy ignored her and opened the door next to her own as Katarina giggled. “Looks like we have a pleasant neighbour.”

The girl on the other side looked at the pair. “My brother isn’t so bad once you get to know him. Sorry about that, I’m Keina.”  
“I’m Elia and this is my servant Katarina. If your brother keeps up like that, he won’t make many friends here…”  
“I’ve tried to tell him that, he doesn’t listen.”  
“Your accent, are you from outside of the city?”  
“Yes! I grew up north, near Orinsmouth.”  
“Ooh, nice. I’ll talk to you later, need to move the rest of the stuff into my room.”  
“Oh, I can help, I’m all done.”

With Keina’s help, Elia and Katarina soon had everything in her room and she went around to meet her other neighbours. The blue haired girl’s name was Anandra and she was even more beautiful up close. Elia made sure to give her as much help as possible, paid for in cute smiles from her new crush. Opposite Elia was a shy boy with a shaved head, and opposite Anandra was another noble girl called Astrid, who Elia had met once before, as their parents had a meeting. She was a minor noble, her house dealing with sewer systems in the south of the city. Elia mostly ignored her.

Once everyone was settled in, they were assembled in the common room by an older student, who introduced herself as Haylen.  
“I’m the poor sap who is in charge of you idiots. My room is off the common room there, come by if you have any issues. Servants clean on Mondays and Thursdays, meals are at 6 ‘til 9 in the morning, lunch at noon and dinner is at 7 until 10 at night. If you need meals brought up to your rooms, they do that too, though I recommend you use mealtimes to meet other students and socialise. Any questions?”  
The room was silent after this rapid fire of information.  
“Excellent, now go around the room and introduce yourselves, I’m going to sleep.”  
And sleep she did, curling up like a cat in one of the lounges in the room.

The students introduced themselves. Elia, Anadra, Astrid, the bald boy, whose name was Ollie, and a girl named Mae were the only first years. Keina and her brother, whose name was Heldam, were second years, along with two girls, who held hands and could not keep either eyes off each other. The last occupant was a much older girl named Eavrn, who had been at the university for 10 years, since she was nine years old.

Once introductions were done, and small talk was dispensed with, Elia went with Anadra to explore the other floors, where she found a few familiar faces from the exam, as well as a few teachers, who were talking with older students about things Elia did not fully understand. Katarina followed for a while but soon returned to their room to finish unpacking Elia’s things, leaving Anadra and Elia to explore alone. Soon the two girls found themselves sitting together on a high balcony that looked over the main courtyard in the residential block.

Elia was the first to break the silence.  
“I never thought I would make it here.”  
Anadra’s voice was quiet. “I failed the exam the first time, you know.”  
Elia’s eyebrows rose. “Really? You seem so smart!”  
“Yeah, I just panicked.”  
“I thought if you failed you couldn’t try for another ten years.”  
“Nah, that’s just if you cheat. They don’t tell you that you can try again though, want to make it seem more important than it is. I passed this time though, obviously. My letter said I got the top mark.”  
“Wow. I knew you were smart.” Elia smiled at the girl.  
“Shut up.”  
“We probably should head back; class starts early tomorrow.”  
“Yeah…”

[1]Scent of the Sea is a famous play by famed playwright Asamadeus Toll, about the love between a pirate captain and a young noble she captures, initially to be a hostage, but eventually to be her wife.

[2] The 8th month of the year and the 3rd month of winter. There are 12 months in the year, with 4 weeks in each month. Each month also has a number of extra holidays that fall outside the normal month/week system.


	4. An Introduction to Magical Education

The next morning, Elia woke up fully dressed and brimming with excitement. She checked her clock, watching the second hand for a moment to check it was still running before extracting herself from Katarina’s arms and getting up. She brushed her hair and teeth, straightened her skirt, and headed for her first class.

She was the first there, though Anadra was only a few minutes after her. They sat together as the rest of the class filtered in, some looking excited, though most looked more nervous than anything. A few minutes after the class was supposed to begin, the teacher entered through an open window, despite the fact that this classroom was on the third storey of the building.

She was dressed in bright purple robes, with pink leather pants and green hair. It all clashed rather horribly, and Elia had to suppress a giggle.  
“Hello class! My name is Moilen Rayn and I will be both your class advisor and your basic magic teacher. It is my job to ensure that each of you progress through your studies here, so come to me if you have any questions or concerns. My office is up on the eighth floor of Kantra, which you will be visiting after this lesson. Now, first point of order, go around the room and introduce yourselves and tell everyone why you are here.”

This second question gave people some issues, as Moilen pointed at each person in turn. Some muttered something about learning magic, while others talked about family wishes. Soon it was Elia’s turn.  
“My name is Elia, and I am here to explore the universe.”  
Anadra, who was next, laughed. “That was going to be my answer, dammit Elia... I’m Anadra.”  
She gave everyone a cute wave and Elia felt herself melt a little bit.

All the other answers were fairly typical, and soon Moilen had finished the introductions.  
“Now we will begin the lesson.”  
She moved to the front of the room and took up a serious expression, hands clasped behind her back.

“I have a number of lessons for you today. The first lesson we will learn is the lesson of safety. If you ever deliberately put another student or staff member at risk, you will be punished severely. If you fail to observe proper safety procedure you will also be punished. There are many spells and incantations which, if performed incorrectly, can kill. Not just you, but everyone around you. Remember ‘The Fall of Melegard’, where an entire civilisation was destroyed through magical misuse. There are spells which are forbidden here, spells with catastrophic consequences if miscast or misused. Be extremely careful at all times. Concentrate on your studies, or you could very well be catastrophically injured, killed, or worse.”

There was silence at the end of this pronouncement. Nearly everyone knew at least one story of a mage who had killed themselves by mistake, and only six or seven months ago, a large house on the southern side of the city had been destroyed in an explosion that was rumoured to have been caused by a careless mage.

“The second lesson is a lesson in power. The things you will learn here will put you above normal people. You will go out into the world as a mage, with power at your fingertips that most cannot dream of. You must use this power responsibly. No classes within The University are compulsory, but I highly recommend you take classes in philosophy and responsible use of magic. Failure to do so will look bad on your record, and steps may be taken to ensure that you intend to use The University’s teachings responsibly.”

This was met with nods and smiles. Moilen continued.

“Thirdly, and this is not exactly a lesson, we will now be evaluating your natural aptitudes in magic. We will determine what sort of channel you are likely to prefer, what branches of magic you are likely to excel in, and any other strengths or weaknesses you have.”

She looked around the room with a serious expression.

“This test is not absolute. It can be wrong and has been wrong in the past. For example, when I was evaluated, I was told to use a wand, but I struggled with that, and once I tried freehand casting, I found it to be much easier. So, make sure you try other things, even if you are told that you have a proclivity to something. Line up, and we will begin.”

The class formed an orderly line, and a number of older students and teachers entered the room, a strange orb levitating before each of them. They sat along one wall, and each student was sent to three of them in turn. Soon Elia was instructed to go to a young woman on the left-hand side, who told her to sit before her and touch the orb.

“Your Sha magic is pretty weak, correct?”  
“Yeah, I never got much more than a spark.”  
“Interesting. If I could not see your forehead, I would say you were a dual-Sha. Try some death magic if you want. It might be a good fit. Your power reserves are high, no issues there. I’d avoid light and life, pretty weak resonance to those areas, everything else looks strong.”  
“Thanks.”  
“No worries, good luck!”

The next tester was an older man. “Sit please.”  
Elia did so and placed her hands upon the orb.  
“Wand or freehand casting for you, miss. Freehand is harder, so you’ll need to work at it, but its more convenient in the long run, so you are lucky with that.”

The next tester was another woman, a little older than the last, and with a striking double-Sha, earth and water overlapping.

“You have an aptitude for battle magic, seeing, transmutation, necromancy, abjuration and haemomancy. Be careful down that path, kid.” She concentrated for a moment. “Pretty strong wild magic and nature magic too. That isn’t really taught here, but you would do well to at least research it. I would not bother with illusions, psionics, divination. Everything else is about average. Good luck.”

Elia sat back down and thought about her results. Battle magic seemed fun, a multidisciplinary mixture of offensive and defensive magic that would be useful while exploring or fighting in a war. Elia had never read much into seeing, the art was a strange mix of seeing both the future and the present as it truly was, or would be, and had a lot of overlap with divination, which she has just been told not to bother with.

In her studies she had learned that transmutation was dangerous, even more dangerous than necromancy, which had been a surprise to her. Changing the very essence of a thing often had unexpected consequences, and there were many tales of mages being undone by simple mistakes while practicing that art. Necromancy was one of the disciplines that was generally distrusted and frowned upon, even within the university, and Elia wasn’t too keen on it herself. Having an undead army sounded promising, until you thought about how many bodies you would need and the smell that they would make.

Abjuration had a few branches, including some of the defensive parts of battle magic, protection against daemons and other intruders from outside the world, and a collection of anti-magic and counter-magic spells and wards.

She had read about illusion magic, it was very tricky, and was not very effective against anything besides the stupidest or weak-willed people or monsters. Psionics were a strange branch of magic, which required the caster to modify their body and mind to channel strange powers, and divination was a load of rubbish, as far as Elia was concerned.

She watched the rest of the testing, and soon everyone else is finished as well. Moilen moved back to the front of the class.  
“Feel free to chat among yourselves for a while. In about half an hour we will go and get your channels!”

Elia immediately sought out Anadra, who gave her a smile as she approached. “Elia! What did they say?”

Elia told her everything. “I’m pretty happy with it, nothing that I really wanted to study is weak, and I was planning on trying freehand anyway!”  
“Nice! I didn’t get quite as lucky as you. I’m fairly sure we will need battle magic while we explore, and I was told not to bother with that…”

“Don’t worry! You heard what Moilen said, it doesn’t matter anyway, and even if you are bad at it, I will be good, so I can cover you.”

Anadra smiled at this. “Thanks Elia.” She gave Elia a playful punch on the shoulder. “I’m going to see how the others went.”

Not everyone was as happy as Elia, two boys were crying in a corner. One of them, when asked, told the group that his dream had been to be a healer, and had just been told that he most probably would never be able to heal anything more than small cuts with his magic, while the other boy just cried, not answering any questions.

“I heard the tester say that his magic was really weak.” Whispered one girl. “Maybe he will have to drop out or something.”  
“I heard that if you don’t have enough magic, they throw you off the wall and see if you fly.”  
“That’s not true.” Elia spoke up. “If you want to study, but aren’t that strong, you just learn the theory, and become a teacher or a librarian or something here. They don’t throw you off the wall. That is only if you kill someone in here.”

There was silence after this, only broken by the sobs of the two disappointed boys.


	5. Wands and Staffs

Moilen led the group to another building, a large block of patterned grey stone with no windows and one large door.  
“This is the Storehouse. Inside is the largest collection of magical artefacts in the world, along with stores of ingredients, original books and tomes, spell scrolls, a room of forbidden potions, and a whole bunch of other stuff that even I am not allowed to know about. There are 19 levels, each further underground, and each with more security. As first year students you are allowed in the first 3 floors and must get permission before taking out any item. We are here today so that you can collect your channel. Most spells require a channel, and while you will learn to cast freehand eventually, you still should always have a channel on you. While some of you have channels passed down from your family or friends, it is important to note that not all channels are suitable, and thus the channel you have chosen might not work with you to your full capacity. In addition, any channels with additional effects are not permitted for your first two years of study without special permission.”

“A wand is the most common channel, followed by a staff, though crystals are common among elven mages. Once we are inside, there will be a selection of channels to choose from, as well as a simple spell to cast with your chosen channel in order to test it. Please, follow me.”

Stepping through the massive stone doors, the class was ushered down a side hallway into a large room, filled with tables that were in turn filled with a dazzling array of wands, staffs, various gems, a collection of daggers, a bejewelled skull, beast horns, metal and stone masks, what looked like a child’s doll, and much more.

The class paused for a moment, taking it all in before the braver ones moved forward into the space, starting to look at the items more closely. Elia went for the wands, picking each up in turn to compare the grips. She settled on a short black wand, light but solid, and moved to the testing area. There she found an array of target dummies and instructions on how to cast a simple illumination spell.

Her first real spell. She felt the excitement rise in her chest as she read the instructions. It seemed easy enough. A purposeful pointing. A clear visualisation. A short invocation.

_“En paev ra.”_

She felt a movement in reality around her, and the target dummy began to glow. Softly at first but then brighter. As excitement flowed through her, it suddenly cut out, and she realised she had lapsed in the most crucial element of the spell casting; focus.

From behind her she heard a voice speak.  
“Well done!”  
Elia turned to find Moilen watching her.  
“Thank you.”  
The teacher grinned at her.  
“Most people take a few tries, even with a channel they like. Try a few more times and make sure that wand is a good fit. Once you are sure, try some of the other channels as well and see if there is something else you like. You can take two channels for now.”

“Will do.”  


Elia practised the spell a few more times, each time easier than the last, and when she could successfully make the whole dummy glow with ease, she went around looking at the other channels, eventually settling on an ornate white mask, which fit her face exactly. She took it back to the testing area and repeated the spell. It did not respond as well as her new wand, but it worked well enough. She exited the room and signed a sheet of paper as a record of what items she had taken, before she went to find Moilen.

“I think I am finished.”  
Moilen smiled at her.  
“Good selections, you can head to the tour now, at the end of that everyone will have a meeting with me to organise your timetables.”

The tour was led by an older student, with bright purple hair and a death-Sha. She introduced herself as Claria.  
“I’ve been here for five years now! It’s great, you’ll all love it.”  
She showed them where the classroom blocks were, the Library, the Great Hall, the Kantra Administration building, the various master’s towers, The Manufactory, the Arena, the Pits, the Medical Halls, the livestock and training area, the Foundry, the andid mine, The Astral Docks, The Room of Heroes, the Portal Chamber, The Endless Maze, the Carabourium, the Eindish room, The Mirror, the Magus Karadon, the Mausoleum, The Crooked Tower, The Upside-down Tower, the Island of Phobos, The Floating Gear, the Karnian Symmetry and much more. Elia’s head spun with questions that mostly went unanswered.  
“You’ll find out eventually, your classes will cover all this better than I can, I am just supposed to show you where it all is.”

Soon the tour was over and Claria took them back to the central green. “Head up and see Moilen now.”

Elia found her way back to Moilen’s office with some difficulty, getting mildly lost when she took a shortcut through one of the arcane laboratories. Some students were already there, and Elia sat with them to wait. She chatted with one of the boys for a while, listening to him boast about how he had already finished a year of studies and had received top marks in every subject for nearly twenty minutes before he was called in to Moilen and Elia could finally talk to someone else. An elven girl was there, and Elia went to sit by her side, admiring the elf’s deep brown skin and emerald eyes.  
“Are you from the Vorntir Desert?”  
“Yes I am! I’m here as part of a student exchange program. One of the university students got sent out to live and learn with my people for a few years and I got to come here! It’s only been a year so far and I am learning so much!”  
“Wow! That is incredible!”  
“I know! Though I do miss the food from home, even the elvish places around here are pretty bad.”

The girl went on for a time about her homeland, telling Elia all about the stone striders, massive elementals that wandered the desert, the sandstorms she had lived through, and the many strange and wonderful creatures that her people hunted or domesticated. She was in the middle of a story about her and her brothers fighting a sand serpent when she was called in as well, leaving Elia alone in the waiting room.

Soon the dark-skinned elf was back, and she told Elia where her rooms were as Elia stood up to enter Moilen’s office. Elia promised that she would come and visit her before stepping into Moilen’s office and shutting the door. The office was a chaotic mess, with stacks of papers everywhere, piles of books on every surface, and a collection of strange devices and tools that whirred and spun, sending currents of air around the room to scatter the papers.  
“Hello Elia, did you enjoy the tour?”  
“Yes, I did. Though I have a lot of questions that the guide didn’t answer, like how old is the pit? And why can’t men go into the karnian symmetry?”  
“I have a feeling if I answer you, you will just keep asking me questions, so I will only answer if you promise not to do that…”  
Elia nodded vigorously.  
“The pits are some of the oldest sections of the university, dating from about five thousand years BDW, or eight thousand years before now. And no one knows why the Karnian Symetry has such a gendered effect on people. All elves can enter, no dvergr, and the majority of male humans cannot enter. There are exceptions, as there always are, and some human women cannot enter. It has something to do with one’s perception of oneself though, if you take a biological male and use magic to convince them that they are female, they can enter without ill effect. Likewise, people who identify as non-male, despite their biological gender have no issues entering. It is a curious thing, and something that is still being studied today.”  
Elia listened carefully, absorbing the information.  
“Thank you, the guide was most unhelpful.”  
“They always are, too afraid of giving the wrong answer. If you have more questions about the University, I suggest you find Paramon, he knows nearly everything there is to know about the university, more than even the Grand Archemage, I bet.”  
“Where does he live?”  
“He has rooms in residential block E, but I think he also managed to snag an office in the artefacts department and stays there.”  
She took a sheet of paper and held it out to Elia.  
“Now, onto the task at hand, timetables.”

Elia took the paper, seeing a list of classes.  
“So many to pick from…”  
“Indeed. Now, the ones with the star are recommended for first years like yourself. Anything without the red mark can be joined, though expect it to be harder to keep up without the knowledge from other classes.”  
Elia looked down the list.  
“I just pick which ones? How many?”  
“How many is up to you. Most people do 10 classes a year, 5 in the first term then 5 again in the second. If you want to do less and focus more on the classes you are taking that is viable, or if you want to try to do more you can do that too. I’ve heard of someone doing 8 in a term once, but he eventually went mad and threw himself in the ocean, so I wouldn’t recommend doing more than 7.”  
Elia nods.  
“Definitely battle magic,” she tapped on that one. “and the wards class ties into that.”  
Moilen took out a sheet of paper and tapped it with her finger, ink began to flow, creating a timetable.  
“Next?”  
Elia frowned.  
“Ethics in Arcana. What is Physical Assertation?”  
“Ah, weapon use and such.”  
“Ooh, I’ll try that. One more is five.”  
She paused for a while.  
“First Steps in Necromancy and Introduction to Transmutation. I can stop a class, if it is too much work or I don’t enjoy it?”  
“Yes, but teachers don’t really like that…”  
“I’ll see how I go.”  
Moilen handed her back the timetable. It spread over two weeks and was fairly full of classes.  
“Thank you!”  
Moilen gave her a smile.  
“No classes today, they start tomorrow. Remember, come to me if there are any problems.”  
“I will!”

As Elia walked back towards her rooms, she looked over her timetable to see what her first classes would be. It looked like her first class was necromancy at 11 o’clock the next day. _Necromancy_, she thought, _not what I would have picked for my first ever real class_. She looked over the rest of the fortnight and frowned. Midnight necromancy lessons? _This is what she got, picking a dumb subject like that_. She also had four-hour long weapon training lesson every Saturday. _This is going to be great…_

Once she returned to the dormitory, Elia met back up with the others in the common room and they all compared timetables. Elia was immensely cheered up when she saw that she was sharing every class besides transmutation with Andara, and her mood was further improved when the cute girl smiled at her as well and said that she was also extremely happy with this occurrence. Elia looked away, hoping that Andara would not see the blush that crossed her face.

Everyone else soon left to go to dinner, but Elia went to fetch Katarina so they could eat together, and was surprised to find her sitting on the bed with another girl. When she saw Elia, she jumped to her feet and bowed, stammering an apology.  
“This is Asha, one of the cleaners here.”  
Katarina looked happy, and the girl nodded.  
“That’s right. You must be Mistress Elia, Katarina has been telling me all about you, and how amazing you are.”  
The servant was Sha-less, like most of the slave-staff that were owned by the university, and she determinedly refused to meet Elia’s gaze.  
“Well I am glad that Katarina has already found a friend here. We are like family, so there is no need for such formality between us.”  
She smiled at Asha, who finally met her eyes and grinned back.  
“Of course, mistress- sorry, Elia. I need to get back to work, I’ll come by tomorrow Katarina.”  
And with that, she shuffled past Elia, picking up a pile of sheets and heading into the corridor.  
“She seems nice.”  
“She is! She has been telling me all about the university and the staff here. It sounds like they are treated a lot better in the university that in the city.”  
“That’s great. The slaves I have seen do look a lot healthier than most. Anyway, I was getting you for dinner, let’s go.”

They joined the rest of the corridor in the eatery and ate dinner together before Elia headed to bed early in preparation for her first real magic lessons the next day.


	6. Class Begins

Elia woke early, anticipation preventing her from going back to sleep, so she disentangled herself from Katarina’s arm and made breakfast quietly. Once she was done, she headed outside. It was cold, with a chilly wind that blew between the ancient buildings. As she walked around the spotted a familiar figure.

“Astrid!”  
The noble girl turned and saw Elia.  
“Oh, it’s you.”  
“Nice to see you too. You heading to class?”  
“Yeah, I have Illusions first, then necromancy. You are in necromancy, right?”  
Elia nodded and replied; “Are you looking forward to the midnight classes?”  
Astrid laughed dryly.  
“Oh yes. I hate sleeping, I’d much rather be out and about at night.”  
She rolled her eyes, “Anyway, I need to go. See you later.”  
Elia waved her goodbye and went and knocked on Andara’s door.

Andara opened it, wearing a comfortable looking shirt and a skirt.  
“Hey Elia. Class isn’t for another few hours…”  
“I know. I just cannot get back to sleep, may I come in and sit with you?”  
Andara smiled and opened the door wider, revealing books scattered all over her bed.  
“That would be fun. I’m reading...”

Elia entered the room and Andara shut the door behind her.  
“Textbooks? I thought we were getting the lists in our first class.”  
“Yeah we are, I just went to a few of the teachers yesterday afternoon and got the lists early so I could get a head start.”  
Elia groaned.  
“I should have thought of that…”  
Andara laughed and threw a book at her.  
“I’ve got you covered. I finished that one last night, first necromancy tome.”  
“You are the best…”

The two girls sat on Andara’s bed and read, occasionally reading out important or interesting facts as they did so, their legs occasionally touching as they shifted. Elia watched Andara closely, looking for some reaction, but Andara was intent on reading. Soon it was time for class, and they both put on warm coats and headed out towards the necromancy classroom.

They were the first there, of course, and as they sat in the small room they peered around at the strange and bizarre items that lined the walls. There were bones, of course, and preserved limbs and odd animals in jars. Hanging from the roof was a large chunk of glass that looked like a lightning bolt and leaning against one corner was a scythe with a pitch-black blade that did not seem to reflect any light at all. Over the next few minutes the rest of the class filtered in, including Astrid, who came and sat with Elia and Andara. There were about 9 students in total, most of whom they recognised from their exploration of the living areas.

The teacher arrived shortly after. She was unusually pale woman for a Valandi, with light brown skin and black hair. A death sha was prominent on her forehead and she had a number of white tattoos across her arms, neck, chest, and face. She spoke with a low, deliberate voice.  
“Welcome to the most ancient of the arcane arts. Here you will learn to trap and bind souls, animate the bodies of the dead, create new unlife, and even prevent death utterly. I am called Etemmu and I will teach you these secrets.”  
  
“In necromancy, there is a cost for every action. Every ritual will take something from you, and every spell will be a drain on more than your magical reserves. A few housekeeping items first. As you have undoubtedly seen, this subject has a class at midnight on the weekend. This class, which you have probably already considered skipping, is the most essential lesson of the fortnight. Many necromantic invocations only work when cast at midnight, or within the few hours afterwards. Thus, the daily lessons will focus on the theory for the most part, besides the few spells that can be cast during the daylight. The night lesson will be the only supervised practice you get, and I highly recommend you do not attempt to cast anything you learn in this class without a teacher present. The consequences could be dire, and not just for yourself.”

There was a murmur of assent in the class.  
“Excellent. Then we can begin.”  
She gestured, and her tattoos flashed as she spoke in a deep voice.  
“Dai enek karadon.”  
A soft shadow surrounded her, making her slightly blurry.  
“The first step into necromancy is summoning the shroud. The shroud is a section of the wall of souls, drawn into our reality. Without the shroud, there is no safe necromancy. Take out your channel, think about death, and speak the words.”

Elia’s heartrate increased. Was she really ready? She had read about the wall of souls, the mystical space where souls existed before and after they were beings, but she had always thought of it as more as a metaphor or a story, not as an actual place that she would connect with. She pulled out her wand and looked at it, still unsure. The woman called Etemmu spoke again.  
“Three, two, one, go.”  
“Dai enek karadon.”  
The moment the final syllable passed Elia’s lips, the whispers started.  
She could not see the shroud, but she heard it. The voices of millions, whispering in her ear, filling her mind. She realised that she could not move, could not scream. She tried to stop focusing on the spell, but her magic did not respond. She felt herself getting weaker as her magic reserves drained. She fought against the flow, struggling to move her muscles, but it was impossible. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally broke free, the whispers suddenly deafening before being silenced as she wrenched her focus back and ended the spell. She fell to the ground and was not the only one to do so. The room was suddenly filled with sounds of panic. One girl in the back row threw up, and one boy near the front looked like he was dead on the ground, a dark shadow surrounding him.

Etemmu placed her hands together and her shroud flared, turning into a wave of sharp crescents that she sent at the shadow over the boy, cutting it to shreds. She stepped forward and put a hand on the back of his head and he suddenly jerked, breathing again.  
“If you cannot withstand the shroud, you will not be able to withstand the toll that necromancy takes. The shroud protects you against the energies that you seek to master and grants you insight into death. Take ten minutes to recover, there is water in the corner. If you wish to leave, do so now.”

Nearly half the class left, including the boy who had fallen, along with his friend who led him to the hospital wing before returning. Astrid, Andara, and Elia all stayed, though Astrid looked scared. Elia had a drink and sat down, leaning against the wall, and taking deep breaths. Andara joined her, grinning shakily.  
“That was intense…”  
Elia nodded.  
“I definitely need a sit down after that…”  
After the ten minutes they stood again, mentally prepared this time. The teacher returned to the front of the class.

“Everyone ready? Three, two, one, go.”  
“Dai enek karadon.”

It took Elia nearly the whole hour to summon a visible shroud. The whispering grew more bearable with each summoning, and soon it was merely a background noise. Elia was the third of the remaining 5 members of the class to create a stable shroud, and Astrid managed a few minutes after she did. Andara was the first, and glowed with pride, looking to make sure Elia saw her success. Soon the lesson was over, and while the teacher had not verbally praised any of them, she seemed pleased with the results.  
“There are three textbooks for this course. The first is Necromancy, by Thados Dayden, next is Discerning the Shrouded Veil, by Haedevan, and the last is Necromantic Rituals I, author unknown. Pleasure ensure you have all of these and have read the first three chapters of the first two by next lesson, thank you.”  
And with that, her shroud engulfed her, and she vanished, leaving nothing behind, besides a wisp of shadow that twisted and faded into thin air.

Elia was still a little in shock when she arrived for her first class in Battle Magic an hour later.

The teacher for Battle Magic was a large, terrifying woman with dark blue eyes, a shaved head, and a large metal arm. Elia spotted the arm, and immediately made a note to ask where she had got it so that she could get one for Katarina.  
“Welcome to Battle Magic!”  
Her voice was extremely loud, and Elia realised why this classroom was set apart from the others.  
“I’m Corva Aetun, the Battle Magic, Duelling and Practical Arts teacher her. A few initial questions that you might have. I lost my arm fighting a hydra, I am partially deaf, I have killed more than 300 men and no, I will not date you. This class has a set textbook, but only because the Archemage said I had to, so don’t bother reading it. This class is a PRACTICAL CLASS.”

There was stunned silence.

“Now, I know you don’t know any wards yet, so I won’t be throwing magic at you today. If you aren’t taking a wards class, you might as well leave now, because you’ll be dead within a few lessons. Now, the first spell you will be using is arcane bolt. It’s simple, effective, and doesn’t take much power. You’ll be casting it at me. Go.”

There was more stunned silence.

“GO!”

Elia and Andara both stepped forward, hands raised.  
“Good girls.”  
They spoke together, remembering the words from the book they read that morning.  
“Njenva”  
Twin bolts of energy shot out, both missing the teacher and hitting the wall, which sparkled for a moment.  
“Don’t worry, the wall is warded. Now, what did you do wrong?”  
Elia spoke first. “I missed.”  
“Obviously. But why did you miss? It’s magic, right? It should do what you want?”  
“I didn’t want to hit you.”  
“Correct. In battle, the human urge not to harm another being can throw off your aim just as much as dust or smoke, or defensive illusions. You must truly focus on your desire for you magic to strike true! Try again.”  
A few more students gathered around. The teacher gestured for them to strike.  


This time, two bolts struck, but were deflected by a ward.  
“Excellent work. This will be the whole lesson, just keep blasting away.”  
And with that, she sat down and closed her eyes and magic blasted against her wards from all sides.  


It was a strange lesson, but Elia was beginning to think that all the lessons at The University would be very unusual.

After the class was over, Elia approached the teacher, thankful that she didn’t teleport away like the others had.  
“Professor Corva?”  
The woman opened one eye, peering at Elia.  
“Yeah?”  
“Umm. I was wondering if you could tell me where you got that arm. My friend was wounded and…”  
She trailed off.  
The teacher grinned.  
“Of course. I actually had it made here, in the foundry. You can take classes there, though most people don’t start until their third or fourth years, but if you practice you can make a new arm for your friend. And if you aren’t the practical sort, I am sure you could find a student or teacher who would be willing to help.”

Elia thanked her and hurried after the others, almost skipping in excitement. She said goodbye to Andara and Astrid and headed to transmutation alone.

The class was fairly empty, though not as empty as necromancy had been after the first spell, and she took a seat near the front. The teacher was very late, and a few students had even left by the time she arrived.  
“Sorry about that, I lost track of time.”  
She then dropped her notes all over the floor. Elia was stunned for a moment before jumping up to help while the rest of the class laughed. “Ah, thank you dear.”

Once she was set up, she turned to the class and began to speak very quickly, in a nervous, high pitched voice.

“Hello everyone and welcome to transmutation here we will learn how to change the fundamental nature of objects and creatures for either a permanent time or just a little time of our choice. It is very important to be careful and not use this magic on a living thing until you are very well practiced as an improper transmutation can cause potentially irreversible damage.”

She took a deep breath.

“Everyone got that?”

Once again, the class was stunned into silence. Elia spoke up.  
“Can you repeat that more slowly?”  
The teacher went bright red.  
“Right, sorry.”

The teacher repeated her introduction and then introduced herself as Phoebe.  
“This is my first year teaching, so go easy on me. Only 6 years ago I sat exactly where you are now, learning magic for the first time. Today is just an introductory lesson, since none of you will have your books yet. Transmutation is a theory heavy subject, since to successfully transmute something into something else you must have a deep understanding of both the original form and the form that you are transmuting it into. This is why it takes many years of practice to successfully transmute living beings, since they are incredibly complex.”

“By the end of term, you should be able to transform small amounts of inanimate materials into other materials, though within limits. Who here knows the limits to lossless transmutation?”  
Elia’s hand shot into the air and Professor Phoebe nodded at her.  
“Gold is one. Platinum, titanium, adamantium, mithril, and most other precious metals, not including silver. Wood is almost lossless, but it has to have been dead for at least a year and needs to be partially worked. Water and other liquids cannot be losslessly transmuted.”

“Excellent answer.”

A boy near the back raises a hand.  
“Yes?”  
“Why do we want to losslessly transmute things? I want to turn things into gold!”  
Elia snorted, and the teacher smiled.  
“I think I will let Elia answer that.”  
Elia spoke in a clear voice.  
“When transmuting things that aren’t lossless, you have to use your energy to have the transmutation last beyond the duration of the spell. If you make a transmutation permanent you are sacrificing part of your power reserves to maintain the transmutation, permanently. Well, it’s not permanent. When you die, any transmutations you cast fail, right?”  
She looks at the teacher.  
“That is mostly correct. You can set up advanced transmutations to draw on other sources for power. For example, most of the university is built from magic that is drawn from the pits and the symmetry.”

The boy frowned.  
“So if I want to make gold, I need to sacrifice my power for each bit I make? Doesn’t seem like that good a deal to me.”  
“Indeed it isn’t. Why do you think we still have gold mines?”  
“Hadn’t thought of that.”  
“Clearly.”  
Elia spoke again.  
“If every mage just turned everything to gold, gold would be worthless anyway.”  
The teacher nodded. “Indeed.”  
  
“Now, who else knows something that we can transmute easily?”

After the two hours were over, Elia went to the bookstore. She found it easily enough, tucked between one of the classroom blocks and the great hall. She pushed the door open and immediately fell in love.

The girl behind the counter was gorgeous. She had glasses, perfect skin, a bright red headband, long straight black hair, and was nose deep in a thick book. It was probably this last point that called the most to Elia.

Elia was knocked out of her stupor as the door swung back into her, causing the girl to look up.  
“Can I help you?”  
Elia stepped inside and shut the door.  
“Uhh. Yes. I need books.”  
“Well you have certainly come to the right place. This is a book shop.”  
“Yeah I know that.” Elia tried to grin at her, but her face was not working.  
“So what books exactly do you need?”  
“I have… uhh… a list.” Elia fumbled around in her bag for a moment before pulling out the list and immediately dropping it on the floor. “Shit.”  
She blushed and dived to get it, acutely aware that her actions were oddly mirroring her flustered teacher from before. When she looked back at the girl behind the counter she tried smiling again.  
“I’m Elia. Here.”  
She handed over the list and the girl took it, brushing her fingers on Elia’s hand as she did so.  
Elia felt like an electric spark had shocked her.

“Nice class list. It’s almost the same as mine was last year.”  
“You’re a student here?”  
“Yup. Though I am only studying part time so I can work and make some money.”  
“Working in a bookshop must be nice, plenty of time to read.”  
“It’s pretty great.”  
The girl got off her chair and went to find Elia’s books, as Elia furiously daydreamed about their future life together.

Once the girl was finished, and Elia had handed over her money, Elia managed to make a fool of herself again.  
“Can I come and see you again?” She blurted out.  
The girl smiled at her and wrote an address on a piece of paper.  
“I don’t work next week. Come by and say hi after classes finish.”

Elia blushed all the way back to her room, where she gushed to Katarina about the cute girl in the bookstore for nearly two hours before she opened her books and prepared for the lessons the next day. Katarina had to drag her down for a late dinner in the halls, where they sat with Adnara and Astrid, chatting for a while about their first day of lessons before they all headed to bed, extremely tired and in desperate need of a rest.

The next day was four solid hours of transmutation, in which they began by trying to turn water into alcohol, in which no one had any success. This class was followed by her first weapons training lesson, which was held in a practice field near the great hall. The lesson was taught by three teachers, one of whom was Corva, the battle magic teacher. Each student was given a practice sword and set to work practicing swings. Elia thoroughly enjoyed the physical activity, after a few days of high impact mental work it was nice to just let her brain go blank and let her body move. The two hours passed quickly, and as everyone stood around as the teachers walked away, Andara and Elia decided to head to the baths before returning to their rooms, and a few of the other students joined as well.

The University Baths were exquisite, heated by magic and filled with wonderful smells and perfumes. Everyone stripped and relaxed in the warm open pools, the heat spreading into sore muscles and relieving aches and pains. Elia had a large bruise that was forming on her side, beneath her ribs, from where Andara had accidentally hit it, and upon seeing the dark purple, Andara began to apologise once again, lifting Elias arm to get a better look.

“By the gods Elia! That’s way worse than you said it was! I’m such a klutz, I’m sorry.”  
“I told you, I know it was an accident, don’t worry about it! I’ll just make sure I get you back in our next practical arts lesson.”  
Andara feigned a look of terror at this.  
“Oh no! You’ll break all my ribs!”  
She squeezed Elia’s arm.  
“With all these muscles, I might die!”  
Elia pushed her away playfully, sending waves of water across the bath.  
“Shut up. I’m super strong, just you wait.”  
Andara jumped on her, splashing her with water before sitting back down and lying back, her chest floating out of the water.  
“I am sorry though. Let me know how I can make it up to you.”  
Elia blushed slightly.  
“Just stop mentioning it.”  
She sent a wave of water at Andara and sunk under the water to hide her face.

After they were clean and muscles stopped aching as much, they dried and got dressed, picking up Astrid and Katarina for dinner before heading to bed, just as tired as they had been the previous night.


	7. Ethics in Arcane Studies

On Friday morning at 9 am, Elia went to her first ethics class. She was a little apprehensive as the subject sounded terribly boring, and was not encouraged when she saw the teacher, an ancient man with a long white beard and hair, dressed in ragged red robes.

He smiled once the class was settled.  
“Welcome, welcome. I know that most of you are convinced that this will be a waste of time, but the ethics of magic are an extremely important part of your studies here. You are being given powers beyond the understanding of most mortals, and you must use this power responsibly. I am not, of course, talking about not using it for personal gain, or to defeat your foes or for other selfish pursuits. That is expected.”

“Power is power for a reason. Those who have power, have power for a reason. However, you must remain aware of three things, both while you study here, and once you are released into the world.”

“The first of these is a fundamental part of magic. Magic is Dangerous. Magic is not just dangerous to those who use it, and to those they use it against, but dangerous to the very fabric of reality. All magic involves weakening the barriers between planes, potentially allowing the passage of monsters and daemons to our world. Be vigilant against these dangers. Before casting powerful spells, think to yourself, if this destroys reality, will it have been worth it? And most importantly, cast your spells in a manner to minimize this risk.”

“The second is even more serious. The nature of the soul is that it persists through eternity. This is a verifiable fact, all of your souls have been souls, in some shape or form, since the birth of the first soul. If I was to blow up this room, your souls would be unharmed and go on their way. However, some spells exist that can damage or destroy souls. You might think that your soul is your own soul, so that it can be damaged with your permission. This is not true. Your soul also belongs to every past person who has had a part of it, and every future person who will have a part of it. Damaging your own soul does not just hurt yourself, it hurts every single being that ever will exist. Likewise, destroying or damaging another person’s soul is the same as damaging an infinite line of beings, and if that does not bother you, you have no place in this world.”

“Lastly, and most importantly. All mages have a duty to safeguard non-mages. This does not mean serving them. This does not mean protecting any individual, or group of individuals. This does not mean you cannot be selfish in your desires or your needs. It means that if you are able to safeguard civilisation against magical or extraplanar threats you are duty bound to do so to the best of your ability. This is the mantle you take when you learn magic. Failure to do so puts everyone at risk and will earn you the utter derision of all other mages, who will not hesitate to turn against you and bring you down. Likewise, by learning magic, you enter into this agreement to destroy those who do not protect the world from these threats.”

“In this class we will be covering these in more details, looking at historical events to see why we have these rules, and looking at the nature of magic that makes them necessary. We will begin with the nature of power.”

Elia listened to the man speak for the full hour, almost unaware of time passing until he dismissed the class. She left and walked to her next class with her heart filled with a strange sense of duty and belonging, as she thought about the man’s words. Protect the universe. That sounded like something she could do.


	8. Katarina’s New Arm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is where I am currently up to, and needs the most editing. It will also probably be cut into at least 2 smaller chapters.

The rest of the day was filled with battle magic classes and more transmutation, where Elia was finally successful in changing her tiny vial of water into alcohol. She had planned to head to the foundry after class, but she was far too tired, and instead ate an early dinner with Andara before heading to bed, sleeping more soundly than she ever had in her life.

On Saturday morning, after a gruelling practical arts session, she went to the foundry. The building was a maze of metal and stone, with smokestacks and many odd shaped pipes and tunnels. As she watched, there was a small explosion near the rear of the complex, which produced a large cloud of almost green smoke. Frowning, she walked down to the doors and entered. An older man sat at the front desk and did not look up as Elia entered.

She rang the bell that sat on the desk in front of him.  
“What do you want?”  
He seemed to be repairing a watch.  
“I need to speak to someone about getting an arm made.”  
He looked at her for a moment before returning to his project.  
“You already have two.”  
“It’s not for me, idiot.”  
“Go and talk to the foundry-master.”  
He jerked his head towards one of the doors and Elia stalked off.

The doorway led to a dimly lit corridor, with doors on both sides. Dingy plaques on each door had various names and positions engraved on them. Elia checked each door before eventually finding one that read: ‘Haeladim Karasad, Director/Foundry Master’. She knocked on the door and it opened.

The director was an older woman, grey hair streaked with grease. She was short, shorter even than Elia, but she radiated a strange power that made her seem taller, more condensed. She looked at Elia, frowning slightly in confusion.  
“Hello there, are you a new student?”  
“Yes, my name is Elia and I am here to get a new arm for my friend.”  
“Arms are tricky projects, we normally don’t even start teaching artifice until your third year, but we do make exceptions.”  
She went to the wall behind her desk and touched a panel while murmuring a spell, and a scroll appeared in the air, which the director caught deftly. She opened it and read over it quickly.  
“Decent marks, and you are already learning transmutation. Your timetable is fairly full, do you really want to add another subject this early?”  
Elia nodded.  
“Hand me your timetable.”  
Elia did as instructed and watched as the woman added additional classes.  
“This class is not as time intensive as the others, but you will need to spend evenings in the workshop to work on your projects if you want to complete them in a reasonable timeframe.”  
Elia took her timetable back and looked at her extremely diminished free time. It would be worth it for Katarina, she thought.  
“Come with me. I will give you a tour of your new facilities.”

Elia was immediately glad she had chosen to follow this path. The foundry was filled with interesting things, rooms packed with strange machinery, clockwork creatures walking down halls, a massive chamber that was totally sealed off from the world, where dangerous experiments were undertaken. As they walked, she asked about the explosion she had seen before.  
“Ah yes. That was just a slight overflow in one of the workshops, don’t worry about it.”  
Elia tried her hardest to put it out of her mind.

Soon they came to a large steel door, which the director unlocked with a large key. Elia felt a slight movement and was sure that there was also some magic that kept it locked.  
“This will be your workshop while you are here. Pleasure ensure that it remains tidy and well maintained. Materials can be requisitioned through that form.”  
She points to a piece of paper on the wall.  
“I will meet you here for our first lesson this afternoon. You will need a copy of Artificing Beginnings by Whaelan Chima and Sigils and Symbols by Erridan Voorst, both of which can be purchased in the bookstore.”  
She reaches out and shakes Elia’s hand.  
“I look forward to teaching you.”  
Elia nodded. “Thank you.”

It all had happened rather quickly, Elia thought, as she headed back to the bookshop. She was not sure why the director herself was going to be teaching her, or why she was even being allowed to learn ahead of everyone else. She was so busy thinking about this that she entirely forgot about the cute girl in the bookshop until she walked inside and immediately dropped her bag again.

The girl laughed.  
“You couldn’t wait until next week? It’s cute but be careful, you are moving towards creepiness pretty quickly.”  
Elia blushed.  
“No no, I just need more books.”  
She passed over the note.  
“Artifice? I thought you were a first year?”  
Elia shrugged.  
“The director is letting me start early. I’m going to make an arm for my friend.”  
“Wow. That’s amazing. Let me go and get those books for you.”  
After a moment she came back with the two books on the list, as well as a few extras.  
“These books are pretty popular among the artifice students.” She hands them over.  
Elia looked over them. They mostly seemed to be filled with schematics and extra sigils for complicated machinery.  
“I’ll take them.”

Elia handed over a few gold coins and told the girl she would visit on Tuesday afternoon. She grinned and told Elia she was looking forward to it.

Her new books in her backpack, Elia headed back to her rooms to eat lunch and tell Katarina the exciting news.  
“Oh, Elia! You don’t have to do that, really.”  
“Yes, I do, and not just because you’ll be more help around here with two arms. I want you to be happy, and I know you miss your arm.”  
Katarina hugged her closely, whispering in Elia’s ear.  
“Make it all pretty and stuff, okay?”  
“I will, I promise that it will be the best arm ever made.”

After Katarina served a lunch of fresh fish and vegetables and the two girls ate together, Elia went back to the foundry and into her workshop. The director was already there, setting materials out on a low table.  
“I enjoy punctuality.”  
Elia placed her new books on the desk to the side of the room.  
“I try to be on time…”  
The foundry master ignored her.  
“Today I will get you started on a simple project, and teach you how to use the tools here.”  
The lesson went by quickly, with Elia learning how to cut and shape metal into the complex shapes required for artificing. Her first project was a simple clock, and she had cut out several gears, though not to the standard required for such a precise device. The director was pleased with her progress and instructed her to continue alone during her next workshop. Elia left sweaty and tired, but with a joy from the act of creation that she rarely felt. She headed home, ate an early dinner, and went to bed early in preparation for midnight necromancy lessons.

The first midnight lesson was a short one. Once Etemmu was satisfied with everyone’s shrouds, they began working on their very first necromantic ritual. The corpse of a recently executed criminal was brought in, the marks around her neck indicating that she had been hung. The students were tasked with making the corpse speak, and after many failed attempts, Elia was the first to succeed.

The corpse sat inside a dark circle of arcane sigils, which pulsed irregularly. Etemmu had leantthe corpse up against a chair and its head lolled to the side. Elia, now on her fourth attempt, concentrated, her wand in one hand and the book of rituals in the other. She called forth the corpses spirit from beyond and felt the temperature of the room drop rapidly. Speaking the binding words quickly, she traced markings in the air with her wand, markings that floated around the body and forced the spirit of the woman back into the shell that had once housed it. This simple necromancy could not recall the soul, only a shadow of her essence, but it was enough to ask simple questions.

“Endivir taladaso karavor ena vassi Haed!”  
With a rush, she felt her shroud pulsing as it protected her from the malignant energies that coursed through her and into the body, which twitched slightly, before its eyes opened and fell upon Elia.  
“What… do… you… want… with… me…”  
The corpses voice was raspy and sent a chill down Elia’s spine.  
“What is your name?”  
“I… was… called… Maion… once…”  
“Thank you, I release you from your bond, go once more into death.”

The room was warm again as the symbols and sigils faded back into nothingness. The class clapped, Andara grabbing Elia into a congratulatory hug. Even Etemmu smiled.  
“Well done Elia. Andara, you’re next.”

Andara was the only other person to succeed in that lesson, much to the disappointment of the rest of their class, but Etemmu told them that it was normal for this sort of magic to take a long time to master.  
“My class last year did not have a single success until the third midnight lesson.”  
Elia felt a warm glow of pride at this, she had not expected to enjoy necromancy as much as she had, the power of the shroud was exhilarating, far more than any of the other magic she was learning, and she was a little worried by this as she went with Andara and Astrid back to their rooms. Once home, she undressed and climbed into bed beside Katarina, snuggling up to her before falling asleep quickly.

Elia slept in until midday the next day. Katarina busied herself cleaning up their room and reading Elia’s books before eventually she heard a knock at the door. She opened it to find a sleepy looking Andara.  
“Is Elia awake yet? I wanted to go and get lunch.”  
Katarina laughed.  
“No, still fast asleep. You can come and wake her up if you want.”  
Andara nodded and headed for the bedroom, where she grabbed Elia’s cover and pulled it off her with a quick yank. Elia screamed and jumped up, wrapping her arms around herself. When she saw Andara she glared at her for a moment before her face split into a grin.  
“Oh hey, it’s you.”  
Her arms fell to her side, revealing her bare chest, necklace from Katarina dangling there.

Andara laughed.  
“Wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch. Katarina told me I could wake you up.”  
Elia poked her tongue out at Katarina, who was giggling uncontrollably.  
“Traitor.” Turning back to Andara, she hopped off the bed and gave her a hug. “Let me get dressed first.”

Ten minutes later the three of them went down to lunch, where they ate bread dipped in a sweet stew and discussed how tired they were after their first week.  
“We should go to the library after this.”  
Andara was the one to say it, but Elia and Katarina were both thinking the same thing, and so nodded.  
“We were talking about that yesterday. Apparently even first years can read a lot of the stuff. There are all sort of spells and invocations stored in there, stuff they don’t even teach here.”  
Katarina nodded enthusiastically.  
“It’s also got a bunch of non-arcane stuff too. I heard from one of the other servants that there is a whole wing devoted to mathematical proofs!”

With the group in total agreement, they finished their lunch and headed across the green to the library. It was a large stepped pyramid, made of a dark grey stone, with carved wall murals that depicted the history of The University. The bottom rows were clear, to be filled in in the future. The door was guarded by six eternals and a mage in bright armour, who checked Elia, Katarina and Andara’s names off a list before allowing them entry. The doors swung open by themselves and the trio went through, finding themselves in a quiet hallway. Little signs marked the doors that led to the left and right.

“This whole floor is open to all students and staff.”  
Elia’s voice was soft and respectful, oddly muffled in the room. She suspected there were enchantments here to quiet voices so that people could read in peace.  
“Let’s start there!”  
Andara was pointing at a door marked ‘Wild Magic’, her eyes wide.  
“No thanks,” said Katarina, “I’m going to find that mathematics room, I’ll meet you back here in three hours.”  
The two nodded, and headed into the wild magic corridor, Katarina walking further along the hall. This corridor was narrower, with books and scrolls lining the walls. There were side passages, marked with signs that indicated what specific topics were contained within. Every ten or so metres there was a small alcove, with seats and a desk where people could read. Some of the alcoves did away with the desk and instead had comfortable looking couches instead of the hard backed chairs of the other alcoves.

Andara found a book about ritual human sacrifice and opened it, showing Elia instructional images of how to perform the sacrifices. The images were very graphic, showing men, women, and children alike being cut up, burnt alive, dismembered, having their eyes or tongued cut out or any number of other awful things.  
“Maybe there is a good reason this sort of magic isn’t taught…”  
Elia agreed.

Moving further along they found newer books, more scholastic tomes detailing the fall of wild magic or the histories of the societies that had practiced it. They did not find anyone else in this corridor, and soon came to the end, were a number of empty shelves stood, awaiting more books. Disappointed, they turned back and heading for the main corridor.

Next they explored a corridor labelled ‘Misc. Arcana’, which seems to hold all the books on magic and spells that did not fit cleanly into other sections. Here they found tomes about tyromancy[1], a short book about using birds as magical bombs, a blank book that giggled when opened, a book about throwing rocks in a thoroughly mundane manner, a journal of a broomstick saleswoman, and, to Elia’s delight, a book just about how people named Elia were destined to become great mages, by a woman named Elia, of course. Elia read out a few choice lines from the book and laughed uncontrollably before Andara punched her to get her to stop. Still giggling, the pair headed back to the main corridor to see Katarina being led out of the building by a mage. When she spotted Elia she waved, and Elia hurried over.  
“What’s going on?”  
“They are kicking me out!”  
The mage frowns. “Is this your master?”  
Katarina nodded, and the mage looked at Elia.  
“You shouldn’t let your servants wander around, you need to accompany them at all times.”  
Elia glared at her but did not say anything. Andara looked at the expression on Elia’s face before turning to the mage apologetically.  
“Sorry about that, they understand. We will be off now.”

Once they were outside, Elia started yelling.  
“What sort of dumb rule is that!? Why can’t Katarina go to the library by herself!?”  
Katarina had tears in her eyes. Andara gave her a sympathetic pat on the back.  
“Sha-less often aren’t allowed in places like that. At home they have separate baths and everything. But we can work something out. In the meantime, me or Elia will go with you. Both of us have plenty of reading to do in there.”  
Katarina smiled at Andara and gave her a one-armed hug.  
“You guys are the best.”

They spent the rest of the day relaxing in Elia’s room, napping, and reading together before heading to bed early, trying to be well rested for their first ever full week of classes that would start the next day.

Monday was one of Elia’s busiest days, with a full day of classes before an evening of artifcing. It also had her very first wards class, which she was keen on starting. The teacher was a small woman with dreadlocks and purple string in her hair. She had dark eyes and an order-sha and wore her robes tight around her body. After introducing herself as Mya, she spoke in a firm voice.

“There are 217 known wards, and scholars estimate that the number of wards could be infinite. In this class we will be covering 9 of the most basic, and the most useful. The first two you need to know are the basic spell ward and the basic physical ward. Despite their name, these wards are not the simplest wards, nor were they the first discovered.”

“Despite their widespread usage today, wards are a very recent discovery. In the past, wards were a closely guarded secret, and figuring out new wards and what wards your opponent knew was an essential part of mage battles, for whoever broke through their opponents wards first would win in ninety-nine percent of mage duels.”

Mya looked around the class, which was the largest of all of Elia’s classes so far.

“The basic physical ward prevents physical objects from passing through it, however, it is extremely limited, in that it can only exist as a round section of sphere directly in front of your casting hand. It also cannot be modified to allow passage of certain materials through it, unlike many other wards. For example, many mages have died when they forget to apply an exclusion of air through a full body ward.”

There was a little bit of laughter at this, which was quickly silenced by the teacher.  
“It is no laughing matter, if you think that mistakes causing deaths is a cause for laughter, you can leave now.”  
There was no more laughter, and a few of the students shuffled nervously in their seats.  
“As I was saying, the basic physical ward is limited, but an excellent place to start learning. The invocation is simple, and the concentration minimal until something hits it.”

Soon the class was standing around, all concentrating on thin circles of energy in the air in front of them as they tried to summon wards. Elia and Andara, having mastered the spell easily, now were throwing pencils at each other’s wards, forcing each other to concentrate more on their wards. The teacher joined in, bewitching a number of chairs to fly at the pair of them, shattering the wards.

“Excellent work girls, try again.”

By the end of the lesson both were able to block whole tables as they were hurled across the room.

The rest of the day was just as busy, and once she was finished her artificing work, she took Katarina to the baths, where to two relaxed until both were pruney and waterlogged.

On Tuesday afternoon she left weapons training and headed straight to the baths once more, where she washed quickly before heading back to her rooms, where she had Katarina braid her hair in elegant braids, in preparation for her date with the cute girl from the bookshop. She wore her prettiest outfit, a low-cut halter dress in a pale purple that came to halfway up her thighs, and even had Katarina draw on some eye makeup. Soon she was ready and headed to the address on the piece of paper. The building was much like the one that housed her own rooms, if a little older. During her tour of The University, the guide had told the group that these were the cheaper rooms, where students had to share a room with a roommate and only had a single room, with more common areas. Elia found the room and knocked on the door.

The cute bookstore girl opened it straight away, grinning at Elia, who gave an awkward wave.  
“You look great.”  
Elia blushed, “You too.”  
“Come in!”  
The girl moved back to let Elia into the room, which was small and cosy, a bunk bed on one side of the room, and two desks on the other.  
“My name is Amelie, I don’t think I’ve said that yet.”  
“That’s a pretty name, I’m Elia, house Enden.”  
The girl grimaced a little, “I should have guessed you were a noble.”  
“Please don’t hold it against me!”  
“Oh, I won’t, don’t worry.” She paused for a moment, looking at Elia with an intense expression. “Do you want to go for a walk? We are nice and close to the greenwood here.”  
Elia nodded, so Amelie grabbed a warm coat and was about to leave when she looked at Elia’s bare shoulders. “Do you want a coat as well? It’s kind of chilly out there.”  
Elia laughed and nodded. “I didn’t think this outfit through, clearly.”  
Amelie laughed and grabbed a second coat.  
“This is my roommates, but she won’t mind.”

Now warmly dressed, the two girls walked down to the ground floor before heading along the winding path, lit by small floating mage lights. They discussed lessons and teachers, with Elia learning that the classes did not change significantly from first to second year. Soon they reached the edge of the greenwood, the large forest that existed fully within The University walls. It was rumoured to contain many rare and magical creatures, and students were warned not to go in too far. Magical wards kept the more dangerous monsters contained, but there was no telling when wards would fail, or when monsters would find ways to circumvent the ancient wards.

Amelia took Elia’s hand in her own as they left the path and began to circle the edge of the forest. Elia used her other hand to withdraw a wand and conjure a little floating ball of light, which hovered just above them, lighting the rough ground at their feet.

“I heard someone got lost in the forest last year, didn’t come back out until a month later!”  
Amelie laughed, “It wasn’t a month, it was a week, and he got stuck in a faerie circle.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah, he was in my battle magic class, total idiot. Who spots a faerie circle and decides to try to seduce one of the fae…”  
“Wow yeah. Idiot…”

Suddenly there was a scream up ahead of them, out of the range of the light. Elia jerked her hand from Amelie’s and grasped her wand more tightly, flicking it forward to send the hovering ball of light towards where the sound had come from. There was a rustling from the right, within the trees and Elia was about to redirect her globe to chase after it when the light fell across a body on the ground.

A woman lay there, on the blood-soaked grass. She had been brutally bisected, from the base of her ribs on one side to the centre of her hip on the other. The cut was jagged, not clean at all, and a large chunk of her innards had been pulled free from the force of the blow. Elia rushed forward, trying to think of a spell that might help her, but before she could do anything, the woman reached out and tried to touch her, instead dropping something on the ground. She tried to say something, but her lung was visible, and clearly not inflating, and then she was still, aside from blood still leaking onto the ground.

Elia picked it up as Amelie stood there, frozen in shock, eyes locked on the body.  
“We need to go and find someone.” Elia looked around, hoping to see someone else, but all she could see were the distant lights of The University buildings.

“One of us needs to go get help.”  
“No way, I don’t want to stay here by myself, or leave you here by yourself! This woman just got chopped in half!”  
“That doesn’t matter, one of us needs to stay with the body, while the other gets help. You can go, if you want.”

Amelie nodded, and ran off into the darkness, leaving Elia alone with the recently deceased corpse. She sent her light orbs orbiting around her, trying to see if there was anything hiding in the darkness, but all she could see was damp grass and silent trees. Not feeling any safer, she examined the thing she had picked up off the ground. It appeared to be a small folded note, with a strange symbol that Elia did not recognise drawn on the front. Gingerly, she opened it up and scanned it.

_Bluebird,_

_It will happen in a week, make sure everything is in order._

_Crow_

_P.S. The University must NOT know, there are spies on both sides here._

The symbol was repeated once more, at the end of the short note. Elia quickly put it in her pocket, her mind racing. Spies? Something in a week?

The next half hour was the most stressful half hour in her life and her legs nearly gave way when she heard Amelie yelling her name.  
“Over here!”  
Soon the area was swarming with mages and eternals, who searched the forest where Elia pointed and moved the body to The University hospital, where someone was apparently going to look at it. Elia asked if they were going to use necromancy to make it talk and was surprised to learn that they could not. Whoever had killed the woman had done something that blocked the magic from working.

One of them, a young man wearing black robes, did not seem surprised.  
“There is an enchantment, that when placed on a blade, ensures that the body cannot be the target of necromantic magic. It was designed to prevent necromancers from raising the dead, but it also has the effect of preventing this sort of investigation.”

This greatly worried the mages, who took it as a sign that whoever did the killing knew exactly what they were doing. Soon they finished questioning the two girls, and Elia took Amelia back to her room. The older girl was still shaking, and Elia had to help her up the stairs. When they entered her room, Amelie held onto Elia tightly, and Elia stayed there through the night, holding onto Amelie as she shook and cried.

Elia went to class the next day as normal, though she had some difficulty focusing in class. Her teachers apparently knew what had happened, as they went easy on her, and she received a note from the foundry master saying that she could miss her lessons there if she desired. However, she decided that it was probably a good distraction, and went down to continue her work, making good progress.

Over the next few days, she listened out for any news about the body, but did not hear anything of note, though Katarina reported that some of the servants had gone missing, though the dead woman was not identified as one of them.

[1] Cheese Magic


End file.
